[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 7, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H205-H207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1015
GORO HOKAMA POST OFFICE BUILDING
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 132) to designate the facility of the United States
Postal Service located at 620 Jacaranda Street in Lanai City, Hawaii,
as the ``Goro Hokama Post Office Building''.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 132
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. GORO HOKAMA POST OFFICE BUILDING.
(a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal
Service located at 620 Jacaranda Street in Lanai City,
Hawaii, shall be known and designated as the ``Goro Hokama
Post Office Building''.
(b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation,
document, paper, or other record of the United States to the
facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be
a reference to the Goro Hokama Post Office Building.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gibbons). Pursuant to the rule, the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) and the gentlewoman from Hawaii
(Mrs. Mink) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller).
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
On January 3 of this year, I introduced H.R. 132, to designate the
Post Office on the island of Lanai as the ``Goro Hokama Post Office.''
I thank the majority of this committee for allowing me to bring this
bill up at this early stage in our session, and I know that this is a
moment of great honor to Mr. Hokama, whom I advised yesterday. Although
it is only 5:00 a.m. in Hawaii, I believe that he and his family are
listening.
The Lanai Post Office came to my attention, and it is in my district;
it is a small island with only 3,000 people, but the Post Office
situation came to my attention several years ago. The population had
grown at that point and there were post office boxes on the outside of
the Old Post Office, and it became quite evident that a new building
had to be constructed. So, after years of waiting, finally in February
of the year 2000, a new post office was constructed.
I think that it is extremely appropriate, therefore, that this post
office be named the Goro Hokama Post Office. I have known Mr. Hokama
almost the entire time that I have been active in politics, since the
late 1950s. I have known him as a person of enormous dedication and
integrity. He has given of his life to the growth and development of
the island of Lanai where he was born and where his family currently
resides. He was picked out as a person of great leadership potential.
Even in his high school, he was elected to serve as the student body
president.
Like most other young men, he went off to war, served in the army,
came back and began his public service career. He was employed by the
Dole Pineapple Company, which virtually ran the entire economic
industry of Lanai for many, many years, and was a member of the
International Longshoremen and Warehousemen's Union and served in many
important capacities.
I recall that he came to Washington during my first tenure here as a
Member of Congress representing the interests of the working people of
this Nation, as well as the people of his union, the ILWU. He continues
to serve in many capacities as a member of that union.
His life story expands the traditional life story of most people who
are active in civic affairs, in athletic programs, giving of himself in
every possible way. But the thing that singles out Goro Hokama is
someone who is deserving of this honor that we are bestowing on him
today is his 42 years in elective office, representing his island on
the Maui County Council and previously on that same board which was
then named the Board of Supervisors. He chaired this County Council for
16 years, served in all of the various capacities, and really exerted
not just a feeling of Lanai and his hometown, but the essence of
Hawaii, the directions that we wanted to go, the concern that he always
expressed about working families.
He also was active in the Hawaii Association of Counties and served
as president 11 times and came to numerous meetings with NACO, the
National Association of Counties. He has currently not abandoned his
responsibilities; in fact, he has engaged himself in many, many more
ways. He serves as the chairman of the Maui County Hospital Management
committee and has been, since 1998, vice-chair of the Maui Civil
Service Commission. In fact, when I called to reach him yesterday, he
was presiding over that Civil Service Commission meeting over on Maui.
So with his family, his wife, Kiwae Deguchi and their two children,
Riki and Joy, who I know are all very, very honored and pleased at this
effort today in the naming of the central place on Lanai Island where
everybody goes and to have the name of Goro Hokama emblazoned over this
post office is just a small way to honor this humble and simple public
servant for all of the years that he has devoted to the betterment of
their lives. So I am pleased to stand and offer this bill and to ask
Members to support it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman
from the First Congressional District of Hawaii (Mr. Abercrombie).
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Speaker, I want to particularly thank the
chairman today for the opportunity to be here. Mr. Speaker, it is
probably something that many of us tend to take for granted over time,
that we have the opportunity to be on this floor and to sponsor bills
such as the Goro Hokama Post Office Building bill, and in some respects
could be seen by others as pro forma. I think, Mr. Speaker, we have
learned, and I am sure the chairman has learned, that it is the obvious
that we have to repeat to ourselves over and over again, because it is
the obvious that sometimes we take most for granted and forget first.
This, perhaps, Mr. Speaker, is one of those occasions, where we remind
ourselves that we really, in fact, do have the high honor and privilege
of serving the people of this Nation.
While the issues may be weighty in many respects and a somber and
sober attitude required with respect to the adjudication of these
issues and the resolution of these issues, today I can tell my
colleagues, this is an occasion of joy for the gentlewoman from Hawaii
(Mrs. Mink) and myself, and I hope, by extension in some small way, for
the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons) as presiding officer, and for
the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) today, to be here because we
have, in fact, the opportunity to recognize, as my colleague indicated,
a public servant, someone who has seen himself always as the humble
servant of the people of Hawaii and, most particularly, the people of
Lanai.
As the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink) indicated, the island of
Lanai is a small island; small in population, small in size, known the
world over as the Pineapple Island, and Goro Hokama is central to the
history of this island, not only from the time that he spent as a young
man before his service in the United States Army, but almost literally
upon the time that he returned from the service to Lanai to take up his
duties as a member of the ILWU in representing the working people of
the island of Lanai. He was elected to public office. The people who
knew him best, who knew him from the time he was a little boy,
understood that in Goro Hokama, they had someone of extraordinary
ability. That ability and insight, I might add, Mr. Speaker, was such
that he encouraged people. He encouraged people to participate in the
public life of Hawaii, and with statehood 41 years ago, the experience
that he had with the county, the experience he had with my good and
dear friend, the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink), and in
encouraging her, and this is not always possible. It is something we
take for granted now, Mr. Speaker.
It was not easy to be a member of a minority. It was not easy to be
seen as someone who did not have control of the levers of power, to be
able to continue to succeed, to encourage others, to participate in a
way that gave others confidence in him, and Goro Hokama was the person
who did that.
[[Page H206]]
Goro Hokama was someone who encouraged the gentlewoman from Hawaii
(Mrs. Mink) to pursue her political career which has manifested itself
in the marvelous record that she has here in the United States
Congress. Goro Hokama was someone that encouraged a young kid from the
east coast of the United States who had come all the way to Hawaii in
the hopes of beginning another life with statehood as I did 41 years
ago, not only encouraged me, but gave me the idea that it was what I
had to contribute that counted. It was what was in my heart that
counted. And when we have a man like Goro Hokama as a guiding light, as
a mentor, as someone who can make clear the path for you, encouraging
you all the way, it is something that is truly to be treasured.
So my colleague and I come to the floor today with a sense that with
the naming of the Goro Hokama Post Office Building, there is a
conclusion to a life of public service, and I hope that his grandsons,
Jordan and Trent, possibly are up at 5 o'clock in the morning, too, to
see their grandfather honored.
So, Mr. Speaker, I want to conclude my remarks by again thanking the
chairman, not only for his consideration, but for giving us the
opportunity to honor someone who truly deserves it, a great American, a
great son of Hawaii, a true representative of everything that is great
and good about the island of Lanai, Goro Hokama.
Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I would like to conclude by saying that I want to thank two of my
colleagues who cosponsored this legislation, the gentleman from
California (Mr. George Miller) and the gentleman from California (Mr.
Stark), both of whom are cosponsors of this legislation. I want to
thank the majority for giving me this opportunity to bring this bill up
so early in the session. I want to thank the gentleman from Florida
(Mr. Dan Miller) for taking on this responsibility of representing the
majority. I certainly want to thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr.
Burton) for his support of this legislation, and certainly the
gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman). I appreciate so much this
opportunity to honor a longtime friend and colleague, and I hope that
this bill will be passed and reported over to the Senate.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
On behalf of the majority, let me congratulate the gentlewoman from
Hawaii for bringing forth this method of recognition of someone who has
apparently done a great deal for Lanai City and Hawaii. This is one
small way that the House of Representatives and Congress can help
recognize people that have made outstanding contributions to their
areas, and certainly this is the case here.
With that, I urge a vote in favor of this motion.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to reclaim
my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Hawaii?
There was no objection.
Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume
to the gentleman from California (Mr. Stark).
(Mr. STARK asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 132, designating
the Lanai City Post Office the Goro Hokama Post Office.
To bring just some of the Stark family remembrance to this occasion,
my family and I have been visiting the Island of Lanai for at least 10
years and, with all due respect to the rest of the Hawaiian islands,
pretty much the same hibiscus, and pretty much the same bougainvillea,
pretty much the same marvelous climate, pretty much the same sand.
{time} 1030
What is so different about Lanai? It is the people. It really is.
They have made us and our children feel welcome there, at home,
comfortable, not overburdened, just a wonderful group of people. And
when we have someone like Goro Hokama, who is almost a legend on the
island of Lanai, he has served the people as a public servant for the
County of Maui, the State of Hawaii, over 40 years, long before it
became the tourist mecca that it is today.
He has been a labor leader, an elected official, a Little League
volunteer, and he typifies the kind of pitch-in spirit of togetherness
that the Hawaiian people on the island of Lanai have every right to be
so proud of.
I am delighted to be here with my colleagues from Hawaii today in
support of H.R. 132.
Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gibbons). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 132.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of
those present have voted in the affirmative.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the
ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a
quorum is not present.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 413,
nays 0, not voting 19, as follows:
[Roll No. 11]
YEAS--413
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Aderholt
Akin
Allen
Andrews
Armey
Baca
Bachus
Baker
Baldacci
Baldwin
Ballenger
Barcia
Barr
Barrett
Bartlett
Barton
Bass
Bentsen
Bereuter
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Biggert
Bilirakis
Bishop
Blagojevich
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boehlert
Boehner
Bonilla
Bonior
Borski
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Brown (FL)
Brown (OH)
Brown (SC)
Bryant
Burr
Burton
Callahan
Camp
Cantor
Capps
Capuano
Cardin
Carson (IN)
Carson (OK)
Castle
Chabot
Chambliss
Clay
Clayton
Clyburn
Coble
Collins
Combest
Condit
Conyers
Cooksey
Costello
Cox
Coyne
Cramer
Crane
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Culberson
Cummings
Cunningham
Davis (CA)
Davis (FL)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Thomas M.
Deal
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
DeLay
DeMint
Deutsch
Diaz-Balart
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Dooley
Doyle
Dreier
Duncan
Dunn
Edwards
Ehlers
Ehrlich
Emerson
Engel
English
Eshoo
Etheridge
Everett
Farr
Fattah
Ferguson
Filner
Flake
Fletcher
Foley
Ford
Fossella
Frank
Frelinghuysen
Frost
Gallegly
Ganske
Gekas
Gephardt
Gibbons
Gilchrest
Gillmor
Gilman
Gonzalez
Goode
Goodlatte
Gordon
Goss
Graham
Granger
Graves
Green (TX)
Green (WI)
Gutierrez
Gutknecht
Hall (OH)
Hall (TX)
Hansen
Harman
Hart
Hastings (FL)
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Hayworth
Hefley
Herger
Hill
Hilleary
Hilliard
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hobson
Hoeffel
Hoekstra
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Horn
Hostettler
Houghton
Hoyer
Hulshof
Hunter
Hutchinson
Hyde
Inslee
Isakson
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jefferson
Jenkins
John
Johnson (CT)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E.B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jones (OH)
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Keller
Kelly
Kennedy (MN)
Kennedy (RI)
Kerns
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind (WI)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kleczka
Knollenberg
Kolbe
Kucinich
LaFalce
LaHood
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Largent
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Leach
Lee
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Lofgren
Lowey
Lucas (KY)
Lucas (OK)
Luther
Maloney (CT)
Maloney (NY)
Manzullo
Markey
Mascara
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (MO)
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McCrery
McDermott
McGovern
McHugh
McInnis
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinney
McNulty
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Menendez
Mica
Millender-McDonald
Miller (FL)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Mink
Mollohan
Moore
Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)
Murtha
Myrick
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Nethercutt
Ney
Northup
Norwood
Nussle
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
[[Page H207]]
Osborne
Ose
Otter
Owens
Oxley
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor
Paul
Payne
Pelosi
Pence
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Phelps
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Pombo
Pomeroy
Portman
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Quinn
Radanovich
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Rehberg
Reyes
Reynolds
Riley
Rivers
Roemer
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Rothman
Roukema
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Ryun (KS)
Sabo
Sanchez
Sanders
Sandlin
Sawyer
Saxton
Scarborough
Schaffer
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrock
Scott
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
Shadegg
Shaw
Shays
Sherman
Sherwood
Shimkus
Shows
Simmons
Simpson
Sisisky
Skeen
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (MI)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Souder
Spence
Spratt
Stark
Stearns
Stenholm
Strickland
Stump
Stupak
Sununu
Sweeney
Tancredo
Tanner
Tauscher
Tauzin
Taylor (MS)
Taylor (NC)
Terry
Thomas
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thornberry
Thune
Thurman
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Tierney
Toomey
Towns
Traficant
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Velazquez
Visclosky
Vitter
Walden
Walsh
Wamp
Waters
Watkins
Watt (NC)
Watts (OK)
Waxman
Weiner
Weldon (FL)
Weldon (PA)
Weller
Wexler
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--19
Baird
Becerra
Bono
Buyer
Calvert
Cannon
Capito
Clement
Doolittle
Evans
Greenwood
Grucci
Istook
Meehan
Moakley
Morella
Rodriguez
Rogers (KY)
Young (AK)
{time} 1059
So (two-thirds having voted in favor thereof) the rules were
suspended and the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
Mr. GRUCCI. Mr. Speaker, due to the death of my mother-in-law, Mrs.
Carmella Fierro, I was unable to participate in today's recorded vote.
However, I would have voted in the affirmative on the suspension bill
on today's agenda: H.R. 132 to designate the facility of the United
States Postal Service located at 620 Jacaranda Street in Lanai City,
Hawaii, as the ``Goro Hokama Post Office Building.''
Ms. CAPITO. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 11, I was not present due to
erroneous information. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''
____________________